Karamana (1872) Homestead North Island

... on the other side of the tunnel is very nice, with a giant pillar standing just offshore. The hike itself was pretty easy, but it was nice addition to the afternoon. On the way back to Hot Water Beach, I picked up a German hitchhiker and took him to the ferry landing at Cooks Beach. He was a strange man with parachute pants, but he was very thankful and it was nice to know I helped a fellow traveler out.

Woke up to nasty weather, but the fog burned of quickly to a beautiful day. Headed down south and grabbed my laptop(lucky). Headed south(again) and stopped in whangarei for food and fuel. Stopped at clemens hostel for shower and laundry. Nice to have a clean me and charged batteries. Headed towards coromandel in the dark and camped at a reststop atop a mountain.

... possible find anything in New Zealand. I’d driven along the Whenuakite road lots of times in the last couple of days (mainly while being lost) and in particular past a bit of black and white road kill. “Oh my goodness they even have skunks ?!!!?” was my thought when I first saw it. Nothing surprised me anymore. Just as I was leaving Whenuakite for the last time, however, I took a closer look; what I’d happily been thinking of as “the skunk ...

... was “the most beautiful place in NZ” but she did laugh and say she was biased. She asked me about my trip and when I said that I thought New Zealand was so the same but totally not the same as the UK, she totally understood having flown over to visit Wales where her ancestors came
from. She said she reckoned New Zealand women were the most “can do” and busiest (my phrasings) in the world because of their pioneering background. She was proud of their strength ...

... on top and warm geothermal rocks on the summit! The best bit was the long bum-slide down the slopes! Those 10 mins more than made up for the effort of the 90min slog up!It was a great day and we certainly needed the axe and crampons we'd hired from Whakapapa but we were shocked to see daft folk in jeans and trainers attempting the sheer slopes of the peak! Next day I bravely delivered a nervous Pete to the bungy jump and decided to miss out on the ...

... e de marche (7h) a été fabuleuse. J'étais seule, je n'ai rencontré que 4 autres randonneurs dans la journée,et ça c'est appréciable, car je me sentais vraiment au coeur de la nature, ce qui révélait mon instinct sauvage. Le soir, une petite partie de billard avec Alex... 03/02/09: Alex et moi nous nous séparons. Elle rentre à Auckland avec la voiture, pour prendre son avion. De mon côté, je monte dans un bus direction Rotorua...

... asking if I was alone and informing me of this killing spree he'd said "Australian?" and because it was early, I was tied and I get sick of corrected people, I had said "yes". Before I could think of anything to say in response a women who I am assuming was his wife said "Don't scare the girl, come on" and they disappeared into a shop. I went on reading my book, not even a little bit more scared, on this guys scaring tourists report card ...

... and visiting a couple of small galeries we then headed to one of the many wineries on the island. Mudbrick winery is a beautifully located winery/restaurant situated on a hill overlooking one of Waiheke's bays and the Auckland skyline in the background. There we tried a couple of wine tasting menu's before heading into the restaurant to share a cheeseboard and to enjoy one of winery's favoured Sav Blancs. Though the day was very enjoyable, it was somewhat ...

I drove most the way up to Coromandel in the dark, it was chalenging roads and it took about 3 hours. Once there we dived into a pub for some pool (everyone is REALLY good) and a few beers, we then slept in the van outside the pub which was an unbelievable squeeze (4 people, van designed for 2) as there was no ...

... Het is een vorm van hardhout dat voor van alles gebruikt werd en waardoor de Kauri-bossen in NZ in een rap tempo verdwenen zijn. Gelukkig zijn ze nu bezig met projecten om de orginele beplanting in NZ weer terug te brengen en de Kauri-bossen is een van deze projecten. Om de volgende bocht stonden dan ook jonge Kauri bomen, die na enkele tientallen jaren al duizelingwekkend hoog waren.
Na deze wandeling nog ...